Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-11-17
ABUSE OF BABY TALK.
GIVE THE ToDDLER A CHANCE TO
LEARN HIS MOTHER TONGUE.

Young America. Even in His Cradle, Has
His Rights Endearing EPithets for
Baby Are Admissible, but Not Gibber-
fish and Jargon.
Iorten wonder if otherwise sensible people
realize not only how supremely ridiculous
they make themselves, but what injustice
they do their children by deluging them with
that lingual dish wash, popularity known as
baby talk.
/ am well aware that in denouncing this
little luxury am f1yins in the face Of public
opinion, or rather Of public practice, for l
doubt if opinion has much to do with the
matter This is a free country. Life, lib
eEty and the pursuit of happiness belong even
TO the poorest, and you invade one Of man
kinds most precious privileges when you as
sail the right of the individual to make an ass
of himself
But be it remembered that baby, too, has
his rights. Young America, even in his
cradle, has his constitutional guarantees.
Let them be respected. Give him a chance
at his mother tongue. Don't defer his edu-
cation in order 10 indulge yourself in the
pleasures Of adult idiocy. Don't demoralize
bis ear for the sake of the satisfaction it
gives his prim and severely proper maiden
aunt TO avail herself Of her only legitimate
chance at billing and cnoing Let that esti-
aable spinster bill and COO by all meanS-if
Hot 10 a lover, TO a baty; but, in either case,
fer the sake both Of the victim and the
language, let her do L without actual vio-
lence to the vernacular.
Be the family rich or poor, high or hum
BE, nothing is too good for his taby; and
snch mangled and mutilated fragments of
language as fall 70 the lot of the average in
nocent are not half good enough for him.
Moreover, they are an insult to his iutelli-
gence No wonder the little stranger some
times surveys the family field with a depre-
catory gaze OF dignifed disgust that says
elainer than words, "Have | come into a
world Of utter idiots"
Far be it from me to enter protest against
aiminutiveS These have their uses. In GER
tain-and Jmetimes in uncertain-emergen-
cies, thsy re priceless. In fact, there is moth
kg handler to have in the house. They are
very present help in time of trouble, buffer
IN days of domestic viciSsitude and danger.
Would you appease an angry sweetheart, cir
eumvent cantakerous t'Other half, pacify
Rn incensed infant, the worth Of the diminu-
dive can scarcely be overestimated. 1t is
most invaluable auxiliary of moral suasion.
But, even in the shadow Of your own lares
and penates, look TO it that it does not get the
best of you. Facilis est decensus Averni.
There is no law of God or grammar to pre-
vent your denominating the dog doggy, or
persuasively appealing to puss as pussy.
Baby itself is a diminutive, and infinitely
sweeter and dearer than its prototype. The
trouble is that when people begin taking lib
rties with language they don't know where
bo stop. merely and modestly file & caveat
against the further maltreating of our mother
tongue by the multitude.
The odd thing is that the majority of man.
knd seem 10 think there is sort Of virtue in
torturing and twisting the language out of all
semblance Of symmetry and sense before ap-
plying it TO infantle uses Milk for babies is all
right, and has scriptural authority, but how
about skim mike Possibly, genuine, unadul-
terated, vigorous Anglo-Saxon is pretty
strong meat for a toddler. ButSehowever
that may be, baby must learn to manage it
at least half way decently if you expect him
to be president of the United States, and of
course you do And how Is he ever going to
learn it if he never hears it9 1t is not only
the first step that costs, but the first that
counts; and it is a standing marvel that chill
aren ever speak correctly when you consider
the mangled and mutilated condition of the
language when they first make its acquaint-
ance.
Call the little ones "precious pets" and irosy
Posies" and @pretty pearls" By no means
sbolish the one bear " of baby talk, its low
ingness Administer every sweet and endear-
ing epithet you can lay your tongue to, but
don't let the good old English words degener-
ate into gibberish and jargon- Put your
caresSes into your wholesome OF our New
England voices need them badly enough
and put not your trust in dropped or trans